About three dozen people spoke out Thursday against a proposed roadway easement the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Board is considering granting to Joseph Keefe to access his own landlocked Wilmette property.

“If this is approved it will destroy a precious wildlife area, and a unique urban environment,” Evanston 7th Ward Ald. Eleanor Revelle told board members at their meeting in Chicago. “A roadway here would be like a huge scar.”

The MWRD Board without comment agreed to a request by member Frank Avila to defer a vote until the Nov. 15 meeting. Avila said he opposes the easement but wants to be sure the board has all necessary information before a vote is taken.

Board members previously deferred a vote Oct. 18 after a Wilmette Park District attorney told the reclamation district that the Cook County Highway Department, that requested the 75-year easement on behalf of Keefe, wasn’t clear on whether the subsequent road would be public or private.

Keefe and his family’s trust want to build a 426-foot road from Maple Avenue in Wilmette to their 1.1 acre property, which they say is necessary to develop it.

The lot is located north of the Evanston-Wilmette border, and the road would run across land the MWRD leases to the Wilmette Park District, and which the park district in turn leases to the Evanston-based Canal Shores Golf Club.

Keefe, a Glencoe resident, was the only person to speak in favor of the easement. Others, including representatives of the Wilmette Park District, Evanston City Council, the League of Women Voters and dozens of Wilmette and Evanston residents, urged the request be denied.

The easement would be helpful to only one private individual, at the expense of destroying much used and cherished public land, much of which is ecologically fragile, speakers said. Wilmette homeowners who live near where the roadway would run, on Golf Terrace, said their homes would be bracketed by two roads if Keefe got his easement.

The increased impermeable surface would also probably mean more basement flooding, several said.

Wilmette resident Lali Watt was one of several speakers who reminded the board that members unanimously rejected a 2017 Keefe request for a different easement across the Canal Shores property.

“A private individual bought property knowing it was landlocked,” she said. “It is not a government responsibility to solve his problem.”

Evanston alderman Eleanor Revelle speaks against the request by Joseph Keefe for an easement across Metropolitan Water Reclamation District land in Evanston and Wilmette.

Evanston alderman Eleanor Revelle speaks against the request by Joseph Keefe for an easement across Metropolitan Water Reclamation District land in Evanston and Wilmette. (Kathy Routliffe / Pioneer Press)

Andrew Paine, legal counsel for the Wilmette Park District, warned MWRD board members that the park district lease requires park district approval of such easements, and said the district would take whatever action is necessary to protect that lease.

Park board President Amy Wolfe presented the district board’s Oct. 10 resolution against the easement, saying she hoped the park district wouldn’t be sidestepped in the process. The board’s real estate committee opposed a private road in 2016, although confusion over the park district’s ultimate ability to block the easement meant the board took no official action.

The reclamation district leases just under 32 acres east and west of the North Shore Channel, between Isabella Street and Sheridan Road, to the park district, in an agreement that lasts until 2032. The park district leases some of that land to the golf club, whose 18-hole course lies in both Evanston and Wilmette.

Kate Gjaja, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Wilmette, said she was disappointed the vote had been postponed.

“Clearly there has been a lot of community concern, and to continue to off a vote, when people have taken their time to come down here to participate, it’s very disappointing,” Gjaja said.